A Darker Tomorrow
by Zumapup
Summary: It was a seemingly simple rescue. However, one wrong move sent one pup overboard to be swallowed by the water. Now the Paw Patrol needs to their lost member. Before something else does. (First Paw Patrol fic and my first Fanfic in a long time so I might be bad with formatting atm. I'm open to all help. Name Subject to Change)
1. Loss

The air was cool, the leaves were falling, it was the perfect Autumn afternoon. All the pups were enjoying the weather and playing outside. Zuma, Rocky and Rubble were off in the grass playing with a ball while Chase, Skye, and Marshall were playing tag around the lookout. There hasn't been an emergency in a couple of days so the paw patrol were enjoying their time off.

As they were playing, the wind slowly picked up as dark clouds rolled in from over the water. A huge storm was coming in. As the pups started to notice, Ryder calls from the Lookout to warn them of the storm. They all complain as their playtime is cut short, except for Rocky who is already half way to the lookout.

Just as the pups get inside, the storm hits and the rain soaks everything in a few seconds. The muffled sound of the pouring rain fills the room. Rocky shivers as he looks outside the door. "Glad I didn't get caught in that." The rest of the pups laugh. "You might not like it, but that looks like it would be a lot of fun to play in." Zuma replied.

Ryder shakes his head "Not this storm, the weatherman said it should be one of the worst we've had in a while. I just hope everyone in town can stay safe." The pups nod in agreement.

For a moment everyone is unsure of what to do, but quickly Zuma decided that everyone should have a Pup Pup Boogie dance off. While Rubble wants to watch Apollo the Super Pup. Rubble and Marshall go off to watch the show while the rest of the pups go off to play their favorite game. The teams were made, Zuma and Rocky, and, Chase and Skye. However, shortly after they start up the game, a loud crack of thunder hits and immediately the power goes out. All the pups jump at the sound and stumble around in the dark for a moment. Shortly after the backup generator kicks in and the lights come back on, but only the important stuff was powered. No TV or games for the pups.

"What are we going to do now, Ryder?" Rubble was the first to ask.

Ryder laughs. "Don't worry pups, we still have board games." The pups perk up as Ryder goes to collect the games. On his way to the closet his Pup-Pad started going off. He pulled it out and saw Captain Turbot's face. _This can't be good_ He thought to himself as he answered the call. The pups were waiting anxiously behind their leader.

"Ryder I need help. I was out on the sea when this swift storm suddenly appeared. The waves are too wild and have thrown me off course. I don't know which way is which!"

"Don't worry Captain! We'll help you get back. No job is too big! No Pup is to Small!" He closed his Pup-Pad and turned around "Paw Patrol to the look out!" The pups jumped up and ran for the elevator. Taking the ride up like always.

They reached the top and all jumped out. "Paw Patrol ready for Action, Ryder sir!" Chase called out like always.

"Thanks pups. As you probably overheard me on the phone," Ryder turned to the giant screen. "Captain Turbot got caught in the storm and flipped around. We need to save him before he get's to far out, or worse, his boat sinks." He flipped through the icons on his Pup-pad and stopped on Zuma's "Zuma, I'll need you gear to help us get out to the Flounder."

"Let's dive in!" Ryder then flipped through the icons again and stopped on Chase. "Chase I'll need your flashlight to help guide Turbot back. If everything goes well it shouldn't be long till we get him home safe." Chase stood up "Chase is on the case!"

"Skye we could also use your help. We could also get turned around easily, if the wind isn't too bad you should be able to keep us heading in the right direction."

"This pup's gotta fly!" Ryder smiled at her and sounded them to head off. They all went to their respective slides and started up their vehicles. Soon after they were headed off towards captain turbot.

A couple minutes later, as Ryder just entered the water with, Chase riding along, and, Zuma leading, he gets another call from Captain Turbot. _Uh-oh, what happened._ "What's wrong Captain?"

"Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I have stopped drifting away. The bad news is my ship has been stopped and sliced on these sharp rocks." He tilted the phone to show the huge rocks his ship was stuck on. "There's water filling the ship, but it seems to be slow for now."

"I know just who can help! Don't worry Turbot we'll be there shortly." He ended the call and sped up next to Zuma. "Zuma I need you to go back to the shore. The Flounder has a hole in it and we need Rocky to fix it." Zuma nodded and slowed down to turn around. Ryder activated his pad and called Rocky.

"Hey Rocky, The Flounder ran into some rocks and has a hole, do you think you can help fix it?"

"In this rain? Uh.. Sure Ryder I can do it! What's wrong with getting a little wet during a rescue?" He nervously laughed before ending the call to get ready.

Ryder and Skye were able to find Captain Turbot by locating his phone through GPS. Skye landed her helicopter on the ship while Ryder climbed onto the ship. "Ryder, Skye, Chase! Boy am I glad to see you guys. But how are you gonna help me?"

"We have Zuma and Rocky right behind us, they should be here shortly to help. As for now, Skye fly up and see if you can tell which way is the way back. If the wind is too strong up there I want you to come back down immediately."

Skye barked her understanding and took off into the sky. Shortly after she called Ryder. "The wind is strong but nothing I can't handle, and I think I see the way. I can barely see the light house."

"Thanks Skye! You can come back down for now." Skye landed just as Zuma and Rocky arrived at the ship.

"Those waves awe totally huge." Zuma said climbing onto the ship.

"Yeah... And wet." Rocky complained, shaking his fur out, only to have the rain remove any progress he made. Rocky just let out a sigh.

"Ok Rocky I need you to patch the hole up Chase and I will get the materials you need." Ryder went into the ship to fetch certain things they needed. However, there was water every where. It was already up to his waist as he waded through it to find what he needed.

Outside, Zuma helped Rocky with his scuba gear as they both took the plunge into the water. Under the water it seemed much more calm then it did above it. But they couldn't take pleasure in it, they needed to work fast. The Flounder was already full of water, and sinking faster then before. Luckily the hole was underwater so they didn't have to battle the waves. Shortly after they made it to the hole, Ryder dived in above them with a bunch of stuff to fix the hole.

Rocky went to work and completely patched the hole up in time. The pups and Ryder resurfaced to see the three still aboard cheering. Now all they needed to do was to get the ship away from the rocks and back home. The storm had bigger plans though, as Ryder was climbing up, the wind picked up, shaking the ship and throwing Skye overboard.

"Skye!" Chase instinctively went to dive in after her. But Turbot held him back. "Woah there pup, we don't need that many rescues in one day."

Zuma, instead, swam over to Skye and help her get back out of the water. Ryder was already aboard and helped Skye up. "Thanks guys, that was really scary."

"Turbot, we need to get this boat away from the rocks." Turbot nodded and ran up to take control of the Flounder. "Don't worry Ryder, I'll have this ship miles from those mangy rocks in a jiffy!" The ship started up and quickly pulled away from the Rocks. Zuma and Rocky were in his Hovercraft and were following the ship.

Just as the ship got away, a huge wave flowed by, knocking Zuma's craft into the side of the ship. Everyone on the Flounder kept their balance, and Ryder quickly ran over to the side of the ship. "Zuma! Are you guys ok?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine Wyder." He turned around to check on his friend. But the seat behind him was empty. "Wyder! Wocky is missing!" Zuma and Ryder looked all around but they couldn't find any sign of the mixed pup. "He must have fallen out when that wave hit us!" Ryder equipped his diving gear again.

"Everyone stay here, we'll look for Rocky. Skye! See if you can see him from the air." Right after he finished saying that he and Zuma jumped back into the water. Skye did what she was told and took off into the sky.

It was a painstaking 30 minutes before they showed up again. Still only two bodies appeared from beneath the water. "We can't find any sign of him. We checked everywhere nearby. The waves must have taken him out" Ryder called up Skye to see if she made any progress. The only thing she responded with was a simple no. By this time the storm began to pass. Turbot said that he could stay and offer any help he could. They searched for nearly another 2 hours but came up with nothing.

"How can he just be gone like that?" Ryder said, seeming to be on the verge of tears. "How can he just disappear?" Chase walked up to him. "Sir, we probably should get back and tell the others. In the morning we can see everything easier. He's a strong pup I know he'll make it."

Zuma looked down at his sub, tears filled his eyes as he thought of what could have happened to Rocky. "I hope you're wight, Chase." He muttered to himself.


	2. A Strange New Land

_**(I did a quick edit of this chapter, so if there are any mistakes I missed don't be afraid to point them out. Also new Character. An OC i made up just for this story!)**_

The sun beat down on the sandy beach as bird calls filled the air. The waves calmly flowed up and down the shore. Everything was in it's place, except for the washed-up pup laying in the sand. Tainting the perfection of the setting.

A few hours pass before the pup stirs. First his eyes open, before squinting against the sudden light. He attempted to stand up, but his body protested. Everything ached, but he knew he had to find out where he was. Through the pain, he forced himself to stand up. Taking a look around to gather in his surroundings.

He was on a beach, looking down the stretch of it he could tell that where ever he was, it a pretty big. A short walk from the water was the start of a great forest. The trees and bushes were everywhere and made entrance from this point nearly impossible. Rocky shivered, thinking of what could be lurking around in there.

The pain slowly faded as his body got used to standing again. He looked behind at the ocean. There was nothing else visible from this side of the island. Fear began to sink in as he realized just how lost he was. He tried to remember what happened but what he could remember didn't help. He could remembered the wave hitting them, being knocked off of Zuma's hovercraft, and the wave throwing him away from them. The wave dragged him underwater. _I should have never taken that scuba gear off._ He thought to himself. He tried multiple times to get back to the surface but the strength of the waves kept pushing him under. The burning pain in his lungs was the most vivid part of his memories. His muscles soon burned just as bad as his lungs. He could feel his strength fading along with his vision. It wasn't long until he blacked out. Then he woke up on this beach.

He sighed as he attempted to walk. Not much pain but it felt weird, then it hit him. He still had his Pup-Pack, which means he still had his collar. He felt stupid for not realizing sooner. He hoped that his pup pack was still functional. "Ruff! Ruff! Claw arm!" To his surprise the arm actually extended from his pup pack, although a little stiff. He went to turn on his pup tag to see if he could contact anyone, but it was gone. He still had his collar but the tag was gone.

He quickly turned around to see if it was close by. There was nothing, the sand seemed to be perfectly laid out, other than the spot he woke up in. He dug around hoping it just got buried, but he stopped soon after. The pain prevented him from doing anything besides walking at this point.

 _I can always come back later._ He thought, _If i'm alive later._ He shook that thought out of his head. He's alive now, and he will stay that way until his friends saved him. The only way he was going to make it was if he stayed positive. And finding resources wouldn't hurt either.

After what felt like an hour of walking along the forest line he finally came across what looked like to be a path into it. He took a deep breath in hopes to calm his nerves. He slowly walked into the forest, being mindful to not trip over anything.

Birds jumped through the branches of the trees and the sound of them helped calm the mutt. _If the birds are singing then that means they feel safe... right?_ He tried many ways to reassure himself that he'll be fine.

He walked farther, seeing nothing but birds and the occasional squirrel or other small animal. Every now and then he would hear a stick crack and the sounds of footsteps running away. He wondered what animal it could have been. Possibly a deer.

There seemed to be plenty of food sources, and being a dog, he at least didn't have to worry about cooking the food. That is if he could catch it. He shook his head, _I'll worry about that when the time comes._ What he did need to find now was a water source, then he could figure out where to build a shelter.

Luckily Ryder had the pups take survival lessons in case something like this happened. Rocky didn't remember anything too advanced, but he did know that if there were more animals in the area, then there might be a stream nearby.

He continued to walk until he noticed a distant sound. Kind of like thunder but it was constant. He made a mental note of where the beach was from where he was, then he headed, cautiously, towards the noise. Hopefully it was a village or something. Anything that could help him.

As he got closer he realized what he was hearing. It was a waterfall! He began to see it through the trees, it wasn't a large one, just a steady stream pouring down a cliff face into a small pond. Over to the right of him there was a rather good sized clearing perfect for base camp. _It couldn't get any better then this!_

Night fell across the island as Rocky put the finishing touches on the small hut he made out of sticks and leaves. The fire pit he made was slowly burning, a couple feet in front of the entrance to his shelter. He went to lay down next to the fire. He put his head on his front paws and sighed. He made a silent wish that his friends somehow managed to find him, but at least for now he would be able to survive.

* * *

Lightening cracks across the sky. Huge waves threaten to crush Rocky as he fights to stay above the water. A wave comes crashing down on him and throws him underwater. He looks around, trying to find which way is up but he can't tell. The burning in his lungs returns as he notices what else is in the water with him. Multiple shapes are floating calmly in the darkness of the ocean. Something about the shapes reminds him of something. He swims over to them, so how managing to ignore the pain in his chest. As he swims closer, he see's who he is looking at. The lifeless body of Zuma, and the rest of the Paw Patrol are all around him. All of them staring at him with soulless eyes.

* * *

Rocky starts awake with a scream, gasping for air until he realizes he is still on dry land. The fire was barely burning, with just a couple embers still lit and the moon was visible above him. A crack of a stick alerted Rocky and snapped him back into reality. He was still lying where we was, and the sound of something moving slowly in the bushes made him wish he moved into his hut. He was frozen with fear as he stared at the direction of the sound. What ever it was it seemed to stay in the bushes.

Slowly he got up and made his way into his hut. Once he made it in the sounds stopped. Peaking through the small slits in between the structuring. The sound stopped cause whatever was making that noise was now moving slowly towards his base. Maybe hiding wasn't the best idea. His heart raced as all he could make out was that it was another animal. Nothing to big, but it looked dangerous anyway. Rocky, now realizing he never made anything to defend himself with, could only think of what this thing could do to him.

The creature passed in front of his hut, right between the fire and him, but it never looked over at him. It's nose sniffing the air and ground. All he could see was a dark silhouette of what looked like a large cat, or even a dog. It didn't seem to be focused on him at all. It continued on to the other side of the clearing, as if it was searching for something.

Rocky waited another ten minutes for his heart to calm down, and to make sure whatever that was, was gone. He took a step out of his shelter to look around. All of a sudden a huge weight landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him and slammed him to the ground. Pain shot out through his entire body. Before he could move he felt a paw push his head into the ground. From what he could see, the thing from before started walking back to Rocky. It looked at whoever was on his back and said something to it in what sounded like a different language.

The shadow in front of him came closer and put it's head down closer to Rocky, as if to get a better look of it's prey. He could easily tell now that this was another dog, and judging by the weight of the thing on his back, it was also another dog, but a big one.

The leading dog stood back up and spoke something to the other one in a sharp commanding tone. He felt the breath of the dog on his neck as it reached down and picked Rocky up by his collar. He felt his collar dig into his neck, nearly cutting off his breathing. He immediately started thrashing around to escape, but the dog had too strong of a grip. Until he heard a loud yelp as he suddenly fell to the ground. Rocky looked around shocked as he heard the same yelp come from the dog in front of him. Soon after both of them fell over onto their sides.

An dart stuck out of each dog and Rocky feared he would be next. Instead of a dart flying out of the darkness, like Rocky expected, another dog stepped out, slightly taller then him. They were hard to see in the dark but he could tell they were walking over to him. He knew he wouldn't be able to outrun this being so he stayed where he was and hoped that they were friendly.

The new dog stopped in front of him and he could have sworn that they smiled.

After a minute the new figure spoke. "What are you doing out here all alone? Don't you know that's how you die here?" Rocky didn't say anything in response, he just continued to stare at them, fear making it impossible to say anything. An annoyed groan escaped the other dog, "Can you at least say your name?"

Rocky forced himself to speak through the fear. "My name i-is Rocky." He tried to sound as calm as he could.

The figure smiled putting down the weapon they used to take down the two others."My name is Liz, and I'm the pup who just saved your life."


	3. A New Friend

**_(My work has been giving me more hours so I have less time to write. Luckily next week I only work 3 days so I'll be updating much more then. Sorry if this chapter seems rushed. I felt like I needed to update soon and I don't want to put it off anymore.)_**

It's been over 24 hours after Rocky went missing. The remaining Paw Patrol have put all their resources together. The entirety of Adventure Bay has been informed of the tragedy, and they all agreed to come together and help in anyway they could. Skye was all suited up and ready to look from the sky, while Zuma set up his sub to look underwater. Captain Turbot went out on The Flounder with multiple people from Adventure Bay. They spent the day searching and came up with nothing.

Retiring for the day, Ryder and the rest of the Paw Patrol headed back to the lookout. They needed to continue searching but Ryder convinced the pups that they couldn't search if they were on the verge of passing out.

"Ryder, what if we can never find him?" Rubble asked "What will we do?"

"I don't know Rubble, but we'll worry about that if we need to."

The pups sadly lowered their heads. It's only been a day, but the hope that Rocky was still alive was quickly diminishing. They wanted to believe that he could survive but they couldn't see how he would. Shortly after they all head off for a restless night.

It was now morning, and Rocky was still recovering from last night's incident. Liz told him that he couldn't stay where he was. They removed his hut and fire place, making it look like no one had been there. Liz didn't speak much while they were removing anything. He took this time to actually see what she was. She was a little taller then Rocky, even though she was probably the same age. Rocky thought she looked like a greyhound, but with something else mixed in. Another mixed breed like himself. Shortly after they finished, she broke the silence only to tell Rocky to follow her.

A couple minutes after they left the clearing, Rocky started to grow annoyed at how the other pup didn't fill him in on anything. He had enough and decided to get answers himself. "What's going on here?" He snapped at her. The shock of being stranded on an island wasn't helped when there were other dogs out to get him.

"Ok, you've been good enough, you deserve to know something." She suddenly stopped and turn to Rocky who jumped slightly in response. She laughed and continued. "As you could probably tell I didn't choose to live here. I was stranded on this island when the ship I was on hit a really bad storm. Many people fell overboard along with me, but I was the only one who ended up here." Rocky went to tell her that was the same way he ended up here but she didn't give him the chance. "Luckily, my owner was a survivalist, and I usually accompanied her on her trips into the wild. That knowledge helped me almost thrive here. Until I discovered I wasn't the only one here. There's others, almost like a tribe, and they do not take kindly to outsiders. As you've already found out."

Rocky cocked his head to the side "Are they all dogs?"

Liz shook her head. "No, they're mostly humans, but they have a couple dogs... Well they're down two now." She went to say something else but stopped. She put up a paw to signal Rocky to be quiet. Talking could be heard off in the distance, and it was coming from where they just were. "We need to go." She whispered, before turning around and walking off, a little faster now. Rocky wasn't about to argue on that. He quietly followed right behind.

After an hour of evading these mysterious people, and Rocky stumbling over a root every minute, they made it to a stream. "We're close by to my camp, it's too dangerous for you to be out here alone. So unless you think you can take them by yourself, I think it's a good idea for you to stay with me." Rocky only nodded his agreement. He already had to deal with their dogs, he couldn't imagine what the humans would do.

Liz motioned down the stream, farther inland. "It's just down here. It has to be out of sight so it's nothing spectacular, but it's something."

Not long after following the stream, they came across a steep hill. She pointed to a spot next to a tree. "There's a hole that leads down into a cave. It's too dark to look around down there, but during the day there's enough light that can come in. Enough to see what I'm doing if I need to hide out in there."

Rocky looked over nervously. "It's not wet in there is it?"

"What? Afraid of a little water?" She teased him. "I guess it is but usually after it rains. It hasn't rained in a while so I guess it's your lucky day."

 _Actually I am_ Rocky thought to himself, he didn't want his irrational fear to make him seem weak. He already let himself be ambushed so easily. So all he did in response was smile awkwardly.

"Well you don't have to stay in it if you don't want to, only when you sleep because they seem to have more patrols at night."

"How long have you been here?" Rocky asked, looking down into the hole to see a complete sleeping area and what looks like a couple pelts.

"About six months now? I've lost track to be honest but I think it's around that."

Rocky stared at her in disbelief. He couldn't imagine being stranded here for six months. He started thinking about his friends, what if they stop looking for him and he ends up stuck here forever. He quickly shook his head to try to think of something else. "What have you been doing here?"

Liz laughed "I take it you mean besides trying to survive with maniacs trying to capture you? I usually just sit in the creak farther down and relax. I would go to the beach but it's too open out there and it's easy to sneak up on someone." She sighed. "There's not much to really do here alone.

"Well, I'm here, so maybe that opens up other choices." Being completely alone in the middle of an island didn't really have many options to fill in free time. But with two, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"It does. Hey, how did you get here anyway. I told you how I did but you never told me." Liz motioned the mix to sit under the tree near the entrance. "I picked a spot I think is farthest from their routes so I think we're good to talk for a while."

Rocky smiled and told the story of the rescue. Which brought up more questions from Liz about the Paw Patrol, and his pup pack, which she thought was just a fancy looking backpack before. Before they knew it the sun was already setting.

"Wait, so if your friends are actually out there searching for you. We need to make a way to contact them if they get close to this island."

"But wouldn't that also attract the tribe people over?" Rocky wanted to be rescued just as bad as she did, but he also wanted to live to see the lookout again. "Unless there's a way to hide it?"

"We could always do a bonfire thing, and light it if we see one of them? They wouldn't have time to see it and get to us by the time you're friends see it."

"Yeah that could work. Hopefully this island is close enough for them to find soon." He sighed, before perking back up "Oh! If we do make it where should it be?"

"We could put it on the beach. I don't think they ever actually check there."

"Yeah! I could collect what we need... but don't big fires like that need logs? How will we get those? My Claw arm can hardly pick up stuff that heavy while in perfect condition."

"Maybe we can just find another way..." She paused. Taking a deep breath she continued. "or we could sneak into where ever that tribe lives and see if they have anything that could help."

Rocky was about to protest until he realized something. He quickly touched the spot where his tag should be "My tag! What if they have it?"

"What about it?" Liz asked, confused on why he would need such a mundane thing.

"I told you how Ryder would call us when an emergency happened? That's how he would contact us! Our tags can call him, and have gps on them so we can be located. I just have to get it back and hopefully power it up again."

"You know, I was hoping you would try to go against my plan. I really didn't want to go right into the middle of them." She groaned. "How do you even know they have it? What if they don't and we risk our lives for nothing?"

"We have to try, cause if they do have it, the gps in it can tell Ryder exactly were I am, no matter how far I am. Ryder is a genius with tech."

 _Easier said then done. This mutt's already gone crazy. They don't sleep so how do we sneak in when they are always watching._ Liz thought to herself. "Well you sit here and think about that, I'll go catch us something to eat. I'm starving." And with that she got up and left without letting Rocky say anything.

"Oh ok. H-Hurry back!" He called out. Being alone was the last thing he wanted right now. With night approaching and what Liz just told him, he didn't want a patrol to stumble over him.

Obviously worrying wasn't gonna do any good, and he leaned against the tree and began to think of ways to get his tag back... If it was even there to begin with.


End file.
